The Snowglobe
by TVFanoftheYear
Summary: She was within, yet without.
1. Chapter 1

_Please enjoy my latest piece, based on some things I've put together about the movie._

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There was only so much Shane could take.

And the past few days had pushed her to her breaking point.

She had not intended to walk the blocks from her home back towards the Main Branch. Being inside, alone, had made her feel claustrophobic, and when she saw the gentle snowflakes falling outside, she had decided the cool air could be exactly what she needed to finally wake up from the terrible dream she was having.

Each block took her through the events of the past few days. Finding Oliver's letter, reading some of it, telling Oliver she had found it, dealing with his frustration for her having opened it...all of these things she could have dealt with and moved on. After all, he had a habit of keeping her at arms length when he was upset, and especially when it came to Holly.

But when added into the mix, their decision to try and re-send the letter, along with Holly's sudden return, of which Shane was apparently the first to witness, began the slow spiral into utter devastation she was experiencing at present.

Holly was so much more brazen, territorial and generally outspoken than Shane had been prepared for. Holly reminded Shane more than once that she was his wife, and even found time to throw in a few bits of personal information-mainly his skill as a "good kisser"-that she could very well have done without. What could Holly have possibly gained from flaunting something like that?

Matters were only made worse when little pieces of their relationship came to light. Things she never knew, and could never understand, because she didn't share the same kind of bond with Oliver that Holly did. She had never felt more alienated from Oliver.

But such a thing had consequences, and it was a strange feeling, being a third-maybe fifth-wheel. Rita and Norman seemed to lean on each other as much as possible in situations like this. For Shane, Oliver had become that person. But now he was part of her cause of distress.

Shane was painfully reminded of how completely out of her comfort zone she was, yet it felt like more than that. She felt pushed to the very peripheral of a world that, as recently as a few days ago, belonged to her as well.

As she turned the corner onto Alameda Road, heading towards Downing Street, only steps away from the Post Office and the Mailbox Grille, she began to hear the faint sound of music.

Shane began to look around for its source, realizing for the first time how empty the streets were around her, wondering where all the people that typically filled the fairway from sidewalk to sidewalk had all gone.

The closer she got to Downing Street, the louder the music became.

Something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye and she stepped up to one of the windows at the Mailbox Grille to investigate. It was warmly lit from end to end, she could see a table beautifully set for two. She searched the space for the couple sharing the table, though for everything that followed, Shane wished she never had.

The music suddenly quieted, and it didn't take long for Shane to realize it was Oliver and Holly sharing the cozy and romantic space together. In fact, she caught perhaps the last few seconds of them dancing together, slowly pulling her out of a dip that looked very familiar, but not shying away from the closeness created by it.

Her heart sank to her stomach.

And then she watched them lean in to each other, a kiss between two people who clearly loved each other, and who shared a past to which Shane could never lay claim.

Suddenly she could feel the tears began to force their way forward. She didn't try to stop them.

As the snow continued to fall gently around her, she realized that what she saw before her was nothing but a physical representation of the role she had always played in this saga. She was within, yet without.

On the other side of that glass was the story she had watched unfold for over a year. Shane was looking into the glass of a snowglobe, into a happy life and restored marriage. She was trapped outside it, no longer belonging, where time stood still, and all she could do was watch her world shatter to pieces and her heart right along with it.

Before Shane realized what had happened, she found herself alone in the DLO. An urge to run away invaded her thoughts, physically prompting her to frantically look around for anything that belonged to her.

All she could see as she looked around, however, were blurry images of Holly walking about as if she owned it. Now both her sacred dead letter office and their Mailbox Grille had memories of Holly echoing through the space. And, if Shane stayed, Holly would become a regular presence in both places.

 _If_ she stayed.

Suddenly it felt as cold and lonely inside the DLO as it had outside. She almost didn't recognize it anymore. She wondered if any of it was real, or if it was simply a dream she had made up about a happy family that lived in the space, loving and laughing and growing together. All of it was slowly slipping away. She couldn't be there when it was finally gone.

When the feelings she had for Oliver began to run so deeply that she simply couldn't exist in a place where she didn't have the chance to be with him was not clear to her. Yet seeing him with Holly, hearing about their romantic courtship, and then watching them kiss had shattered any logical way for she and Oliver to ever find their way.

Now the culmination of the part she had been playing in the grand drama that was the return of Oliver's wandering wife was a quiet retreat. Shane simply couldn't bear it.

Out of obligation, and for all the memories she was sure were real, Shane needed to tell them all goodbye somehow. Even if they never understood why she left completely, they had to know her departure wasn't without more love for them than they could imagine.

Packing up the last few things from her desk, Shane pulled some note paper and a few envelopes from a bottom drawer.

A letter had started everything; a letter would end it.

The words came to her without a thought. A note addressed to each of the people of whom she had become so fond and learned to call family were the perfect farewell gift.

To Norman: _Please take good care of Rita. She's a very special girl-but you already know that. Make sure she knows that too._

To Rita: _Please don't let what happened here with Oliver and I happen to you and Norman. This is another banana boat-be brave._

To Oliver: _Please accept my resignation from the Dead Letter Office, effective immediately._

She placed Oliver's letter on his chair and took one last look around the office before leaving. She was going to miss this place, and the tear that fell, smudging Oliver's name on the envelope to his letter, was the proof.

Shane gathered the small box she had packed up and made her way towards the door. The urge to turn around overwhelmed her, so she took one last look at this place she called home.

"Goodbye," She whispered.

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A _s always, reviews make my day. I would also love to know your take on things, so feel free to share them with me as well. And don't forget to come back for the conclusion. It's already written, I think I'll just hold off posting it until I get a few reviews :) Love you, fellow #POstables!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Here's the next chapter-enjoy!_

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Shane wasn't sure how long she wandered the streets before returning to her home.

Making the decision to leave was perhaps the hardest thing she had done in a long time. Even transferring from D.C. to Denver had been a welcome change. If she had wanted to transfer back to Direct Line Operations it would take six weeks, six weeks too many. But would she even want to be part of the Post Office, spending her time wondering if the letters were making it to their intended recipients, remembering how many she had returned in person in the company of Rita, Norman and Oliver?

Finally back home after hours of wandering, Shane opened her front gate. It occurred to her that it was locked when she left.

Instinct caused her to look towards the door, only to find her front stoop occupied.

"Oh, Oliver," she fumbled, she was too exhausted to wonder how or why at that exact moment. It would take everything she had to simply deal with whatever this was in front of her.

Oliver wasted no time getting to the point.

"I was very disappointed to receive your letter," he began, rising from her stoop and approaching her. "I do believe this is the second attempt you have made to tender your resignation, Ms. McInerney."

Shane might have fought the urge to smile or laugh when he tried to chastise her like this, with his big words and his authoritative explanations. Tonight, she struggled to even look him in the eye.

"And, as in the first instance, I am here to inform you that I do not accept." By now he had met Shane halfway between the gate and her porch.

Somehow just the sound of his voice was enough to cause Shane to fight against everything inside of her to keep from shedding another tear. She had already shed so many. Why did they still come?

He must have felt the need to fill the silence, because he began to speak again.

"I knew the second I crossed the threshold into the DLO this evening that something was wrong. That was before Rita and Norman rounded the corner to hand me this letter," he explained, pulling the letter she had left on his chair from his coat pocket.

"My attention was immediately drawn to your work station, and do you know what I found there? Nothing. Not a single trace of you was left. Even as we stood there, a sense of emptiness filled the room."

Still all Shane could do was look at the box under her arm, the snow at her feet, or anything else that wasn't Oliver's eyes.

"To say that I was alarmed would be a gross understatement. I was immediately compelled to find you. Rita was kind enough to inform me that you had left letters for she and Norman as well. We hoped, if we put them together, that we might glean some information as to your whereabouts."

This was beginning to feel like some sort of lecture, and she intended to look him in the eye and tell him so.

"Oliver, a lecture is the last thing I need right now," she said, walking around him and heading towards the door. The decision to do so shocked her, and she could imagine it had probably shocked him, too.

"Shane!"

She stopped in her tracks. It was a force of habit any time he called her by name. Right now, it was a habit she wished she could break.

"Do you know what I read in Rita's letter, Shane?" he asked, leaving her to wonder if the question was rhetorical or if he genuinely wanted her to recall what she'd written.

"Please don't let what happened here with Oliver and I happen to you and Norman," he repeated quietly. "What did you mean?"

Shane put the box she still carried down next to her in the snow, suddenly unable to contend with its weight anymore. She finally turned to face him.

"Nothing," She replied bluntly, "I meant don't let 'nothing' happen between them. They are so in love with each other they don't know what to do about it. I just want them to finally be happy together."

From the look on his face, Shane could tell that Oliver was beginning to put the pieces together.

"I held out hope as long as I could," Shane confessed, recognizing that if this wasn't the moment to lay out what was on her heart, then that moment didn't exist.

"But it's gone now. It left as soon as she came back. And I know that this is what you want-what you've been wanting-for a long time. You had a life before me, and you'll continue to have one long after I'm gone," Shane cried. "I just can't watch you live it. I don't know how else to say it."

He took a moment to process what she'd just said, but he looked as if he needed to cut in.

"Before you say another word, I think you should know that Holly and I have decided to end our marriage."

A cold wind cut across the space between them. Shane was sure that if she had held onto the box of her belongings they would have tumbled out onto the ground in her surprise.

"I should have seen what was happening sooner-I should have felt you slipping away _sooner_ ," Oliver began, apologetically, "But I am grateful that someone pointed out to me what I was too blind to see myself. Or, as they put it, what I was willfully ignoring because I was too much of a gentleman to entertain it."

 _Had Holly said that to him?_

Oliver was suddenly speaking another language, one she didn't quite recognize and didn't understand, especially in the midst of this revelation that he and Holly were ending their marriage.

"Shane, don't you see?" Oliver entreated, taking another step towards her, "My wife left and I didn't go after her. You've tried to leave twice and I never questioned coming after you."

Oliver could still see her struggling to grasp whatever message he was trying to convey. She watched him shift his weight as he shoved his hands into his coat pockets, an air of frustration about the action, as if whatever he said next, his life might depend on.

"I have never believed in chance or coincidence, Shane, you know that. In the blocks it took me to travel here, I have realized that _this_ is not by chance or coincidence-that _we_ are not by chance or coincidence. You came into my life, and the Oliver you met that day at the coffee shop would not recognize the world this Oliver O'Toole lives in now-and it's because of you. Not a moment, nor a single _word_ , has ever been wasted between us, Shane. I'm not sure I want to live in a world where you're not by my side."

He removed his hands from his pocket and gently gathered hers to hold. Shane didn't fight him.

"Please," He pleaded earnestly, "don't make me."

Part of Shane had always wondered if there would ever be a day when the two of them admitted how they really felt. She couldn't have ever imagined it would be like this, in the cold, in a flurry of snow, in front of her house. The snowglobe she had envisioned earlier came to mind, only this time she and Oliver were in the middle of it, on the cusp of something she couldn't quite fathom, but knew would be nothing short of amazing. They were present and in the moment. They were together and they had a chance.

For the first time the entire evening, the tears she began to cry were out of something other than loss. She loosed her hands from his and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Oliver, I never wanted to," she cried. "And I don't want to either."

Shane felt Oliver reciprocate the embrace and sensed relief in his hold.

"This is to say nothing of the fact I promised Rita and Norman I would bring you home-and you know how I feel about keeping promises. I am a gentleman, after all," he sighed.

Shane pulled back from their hug, regaining her composure.

She smiled, "Then let's go home."

Oliver released his remaining hold on her and bent down to retrieve her box of belongings, which was filling with snow. He tucked it under one arm, and grabbed her hand with the other. They walked in silence till they reached the gate.

"I don't see you Dark of Night Award," Oliver commented, having visually perused her box.

"It didn't seem right to break them up."

"I am glad you realized that," Oliver replied, giving her hand a squeeze.

Shane could feel her cheeks warming. And it was a comfort to her. Oliver was no longer on the other side of the glass. The snowglobe had become his home again, too.

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 _Hope you liked it. As always, I love hearing from you guys in reviews!_


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